The CPL is slated to get under way in August of this year but there is a lot of uncertainty, not just regarding its staging, but also the format it will take as well. One of the ideas being floated around suggests a ‘social distancing’ version of the tournament, which would be held at Barbados' Kensington Oval.
While some players have claimed an empty stadium could be awkward, Walsh, who is a part of the defending champion Barbados Tridents, has insisted it would be business as usual. Unlike the massive crowds associated with the CPL, the regional competitions do struggle at times to attract any significant crowd following.
“We still have quite some time to try and get ready while we are waiting for the tournament to come around. We see some progress with the region recovering from the virus, and probably at the start, it may affect the tournament where the social distancing is concerned, and it might not, but I am used to playing in front of an empty stadium in regional cricket where pretty much no one comes sometimes, so I guess it would be business as usual,” Walsh told the Antigua Observer.
Walsh, the tournament’s top wicket-taker last season, was one of nine Barbados Tridents retained. The list also includes captain Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope and Raymon Reifer, Ashley Nurse and Johnathan Carter.
The Jamaica-based franchise lifted the third title in its history and first in six years following a dominant 8-wicket win over the more heavily favoured Barbados Royals. Heading into the final, the Royals were the league’s hottest team having lost just two of 10 games.
The Tallawahs on the other hand, who are conditioned by Ambrose and another Windies legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in the meantime, finished in the final qualifying spot. At one point during the season, the Tallawahs lost 5 of 7 games.
“This means a lot as a group we came into the tournament as underdogs. Not many gave us a chance to come out of the first round, let alone win it,” Ambrose said, following the team’s triumph.
“I haven’t sprinted for years and I found myself sprinting onto the field. It was a wonderful performance thought and we were deserving winners,” he added.
“The thing about the Tallawahs is that we didn’t really on just one or two players. At any given time, any player can step up. We have depth in our batting, we have good bowling. We stuck together as a family and we believed from day 1 that we could have won this championship and we did.”
Correction: The original story claimed that the Jamaica Tallawahs won its fourth CPL title on Friday, September 30 and it's first in four years. That was incorrect. The Tallawahs had previously won two titles (2013 and 2016). So the 2022 title was its first in six years. Sportsmax.TV apologises for the error.
After losing the toss and being put in to bat, only Powell (33) and Nkrumah Bonner (41) managed to mount any kind of resistance as the Jamaica-based franchise was dismissed for 107. In response, Lendl Simmons’ 54 unbeaten and 44 undefeated from Tion Webster saw the rampaging Knight Riders cruise home with a 9-wicket win.
Even in a low-scoring tournament, the Tallawhas struggled at the crease for most of the tournament. The team scored under 120 on four occasions and over 150 on just three occasions.
“We have played a lot of inconsistent cricket. The batters didn’t stand up all season. We ask that our international batters bat most of the overs and we just did not do that,” Powell said after the game. On this occasion the Tallawahs found themselves four wickets down with only 24 runs on the board, coming out of the powerplay.
“The batters just didn’t come to the party. If we should look at it from a bowling perspective, I think our bowlers handled themselves very well. The international spinners did very well for us in the middle overs and even when we started the pace bowlers were good.”
In Tuesday’s semi-final, the Zouks annihilated last season’s finalist Guyana Amazon Warriors in a crushing 10-wickets win. The Warriors were shockingly bowled out for 55, the second-lowest total in CPL history, before the St Lucia-based franchise easily eclipsed the total.
The win was, however, even more, significant for the franchise who prior to this season had never made it to the playoffs let alone put themselves in a position to claim the title. Facing the rampaging Trinbago Knight Riders, who are yet to lose a match this season, the St Lucia Zouks will find themselves in a similar position, that is playing the role of underdogs.
“I told the guys. We didn’t come here to celebrate a semi-final. Nobody gave us a chance. From the start, I’ve said we have some effective guys. We don’t have guys in the top five in the runs but we play as a team, especially when we are out there in the field,” Sammy said.
“We want to win. Obviously TKR they are the team to beat. We have said in our dressing room if you want to win the final you have to go through TKR. It was a similar situation with the West Indies. We said if you want to win, you have to beat India and we have our silent confidence in the dressing room.”
The tournament, being staged in a biosecure atmosphere in Trinidad and Tobago, due to the ongoing threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been widely panned for poor batting performances and low scoring.
Statistically, the average score per innings has fallen some 27 runs behind last season, which had an innings average of around 151, as compared to this season’s average of 122. Perhaps even more instructive, is the fact that in completed matches this season teams have failed to reach double digits on eight occasions as opposed to just once last season.
A lot of speculation has surfaced regarding the reason for the diminished performances to date. Among them is the fact that players have not played for months, due to the pandemic, and the condition of the pitch. It has also been suggested that possible quarantine fatigue might be affecting some players who took part in the England series. It has, however, also been suggested that a lot of it is simply down to irresponsible batting. To a large extent, Harper concurs.
“I think that yes we expected to have some better cricket. I think at times a lot of power play was put in and not enough brain play,” Harper told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“We are happy to have some cricket but yes we expected to have some better performances generally, particularly on the batting side of things,” he added.
“Ideally you would like to have pitches more conducive to stroke play from the get-go. But the batsmen that have generally succeeded have adapted very well. They have given themselves some time to get in and then capitalised later. Some players have not gotten that memo as yet, some teams are still trying to score all the runs upfront, when all the runs are scored at the back end.”
On Saturday, the Patriots fell by 10 wickets to an ever-improving St Lucia Zouks to add to losses against the Barbados Tridents and the Guyana Amazon Warriors earlier in the week.
According to Emrit, the team is yet to get any one facet of its game going the way it should.
On Saturday, he pointed to more than one instance when the team got it wrong.
“There’s a couple of things that you can look at. A couple of chances that went down,” Emrit began.
Adding that; “When you look at the last two overs of the game, after we were pulling them back so well after 18 overs the last two overs went for about 30-odd. We thought we had them. You know, 150-160 might have been ideal on that wicket but we just let it go in those last two overs,” he said after the Zouks scored 172 despite a middle-overs slip.
“We are trying to get everything in place. We are trying to get all aspects to perform. We just can’t get it right at the moment. We have to go back to drawing board,” he said.
With three losses from three starts, Emrit says there is now pressure on the team headed into their fourth game against the defending champions, Barbados Tridents.
“Now it is three out of three so the pressure is on us but we’ve been in this position before and it’s just for us to get a win under our belt and get the momentum.”
Speaking after the Zouks produced an all-round performance to earn a 10-run win over the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Sammy said he was proud of every aspect of the team’s play.
“With Jimbo having to come off because he was having some problems with his vision and to see Mark Deyal, the way he is playing. I’ve told him I played 12 years of international cricket and I don’t have half the talent he has so what’s stopping him,” said Sammy.
“But today Fletcher took the innings deep and this morning I spoke about the impact of my Afghan players and you see Mohammad Nabi again, after losing some quick wickets he was back and the way he controlled that last few overs,” he said.
But that was with the bat, with the ball, Sammy could not ask much more than he was given.
“[Nabi] with the ball, Roston Chase, asking him to bowl in the powerplay, my spinners have responded really really well,” said Sammy.
“When you look at our squad from early I said, we don’t have the superstar guys but from the camp, from the two days that we had at practice, what I saw, with the skill level with the bowlers, we have guys that can turn the ball away from the bat, guys that can bring it in to the bat for both left and right, so we have a good mix,” said Sammy.
According to the former West Indies captain, the superstars may not matter if everybody does their job in the way his Zouks have been.
“At the end of the day, it boils down to execution and I thought today, we executed really really well against them.”
Whilst the tournament was held behind closed doors in Trinidad & Tobago, the Hero CPL worked closely with all six host countries to ensure that the Caribbean was promoted as a must-visit destination. Both the live broadcast and the league’s digital channels carried bespoke tourism content for each of its partners.
The total exposure of US$258million is an increase of 381 per cent on the 2019 figure with the tourist boards in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago benefiting from the Hero CPL promoting the unique attributes of each of the countries.
These figures were generated from an independent report compiled by YouGov Sport – one of the most respected research firms in the world.
The increase in exposure was driven by the Hero CPL’s record broadcast and digital audience of 523.5million in 2020.
“Our host countries are the heart and soul of the Hero CPL and every year we work very hard to get them as much coverage as possible. That was made more difficult this year, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic meaning the games could only be played in one country, but we are delighted that we have still been able to deliver these stunning results,” said CPL COO Pete Russell.
“We would like to thank all our host countries for their support and we look forward to building on our successful partnerships in the coming years.”
Due to the threat posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the entire 2020 edition of the tournament was held in Trinidad and Tobago, under strict COVID-19 protocols.
In several respects, the tournament was a success with the event successfully being delivered to a record audience of over 500 million. The Trinbago Knightriders were eventually crowned champions on their own patch.
St Kitts and Nevis’ Warner Park has been the scene of some of the most iconic matches in Hero CPL history. Fans were treated to Chris Gayle’s brilliant hundred against the Jamaica Tallawahs in 2019 and Andre Russell’s even more explosive century against the Trinbago Knight Riders in 2016. There have also been some amazing matches, not least the game that went to a Super Over finish between St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and the Knight Riders in 2019.
This year’s tournament takes on extra significance with it taking place in the lead up to the ICC T20 World Cup and both West Indies and overseas players will be using the opportunity to push for selection for their international teams.
“We are delighted to be able to announce that we will be having the Hero CPL in St Kitts & Nevis in 2021 and we would like to thank those involved in welcoming the tournament to this wonderful country,” Pete Russell, Hero CPL’s COO, said.
“As was demonstrated during the 2020 tournament the CPL is a massive boost for the host country with US$51.5million delivered in sponsorship value for Trinidad & Tobago. We are really looking forward to giving St Kitts & Nevis the exposure they deserve.”
Nabi will be available for selection for the Tallawahs from the start of the Guyana leg of the tournament.
The Tallawahs were left a man short following the departure of Nepalese bowler Sandeep Lamichhane. Sandeep left the Caribbean last week to return to his homeland to answer charges after an arrest warrant was issued in his name.
The six Afghan players taking part in the Hero CPL this season are Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Najibullah Zadran and Zahir Khan, all of whom were due to take part in the Shpageeza Cricket League, their domestic T20 competition.
However, following discussions between the CWI President Ricky Skerritt and the ACB Chairman Farhan Yusefzai, an agreement was reached to allow the players to stay on until CPL has finished.
“We understand the importance of the Shpageeza Cricket League to the ACB and the reasons why it had to be scheduled during the CPL after the NOCs were all issued. We truly appreciate the Chairman of the ACB allowing these six Afghan players to stay at the Hero CPL until its conclusion,” said Pete Russell, Hero CPL’s COO.
“Afghan players have had a huge impact on our competition, both this season and in previous years, and we are very grateful to have them with us until the final on September 10.
“I would also like to put on record our thanks to CWI’s President and CEO for taking the time to resolve this situation, which has shone a light on the issues leagues such as CPL face with the current NOC policy and system.”Mo
The much-travelled 36-year-old T20 specialist made history earlier this week after capturing his 500th wicket in the format while competing in the Caribbean Premier League for Trinbago Knight Riders. As far as the CPL goes, the historic achievement marked his 100th in the competition.
In 12-years, Bravo has played for numerous T20 franchises around the world, including playing a major role in two T20 World Cup titles for the West Indies. Though not quite at the absolute top of his game these days, he remains an impact player for any team he represents. With pressure often placed on players to retire, once they approach 40, Bravo has insisted he feels in great shape.
”Anyone who challenges or questions our age – I don’t think anyone of us, our performance has dipped or dropped because of our age,” Bravo recently told EspnCricinfo.
“As a matter of fact, most of us even perform just as good or even better. Age is just a number. Don’t judge a player by his age but judge him by his performance and his ability to continue to play.”
The likes of Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Imran Tahir, and Bravo have all defied age, performing brilliantly for their franchises all over the world.
Drakes hit the winning runs to cap off a superb finals performance, which saw the all-rounder end with an unbeaten 48 from 24 balls; in the process, sparking wild celebrations as the Patriots captured their first-ever CPL title.
In terms of momentum, the match had rocked back and forth in frantic fashion as the Kings set a target of 159 for 7. Drakes' innings proved crucial in deciding the thrilling encounter, which saw the team needing 9 off the final over and, in the end, managing to just creep over the line. He was, however, eager to spread the praise around.
“It was the first chance I got to play a full competition and I think I did well, but it was Ruthers (Sherfane Rutherford) and Bravo, Soldj (Sheldon Cottrell), and everyone on the team. It’s an amazing feeling,” the 23-year-old, who made his debut three years ago with the Barbados-based CPL franchise, said.
“I thought it was a great team effort and I was just happy to do my part for the win,” he added.
Overall, Drakes ended with 102 runs and a team-high 16 wickets in 11 matches.
Guyana Amazon Warriors secured their place in the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) play-offs with a 37-run win over Trinbago Knight Riders.
Trinbago Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field in this must-win game, with Amazon Warriors opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz giving the fans at Providence stadium a spectacle, scoring 60 from 42 balls to ignite the Warrior’s innings and help take them to 173-6.
In their chase, the Trinbago Knight Riders built a steady opening partnership through Tim Seifert and Colin Munro, but wickets then fell throughout their innings as the Amazon Warriors were spurred on by a vocal home crowd. The Knight Riders finished 136 all out and lost by 37 runs.
Guyana Amazon Warriors suffered an early setback in their innings as Ravi Rampaul showed his effectiveness in the PowerPlay by taking the wicket of Chandrapaul Hemraj. Gurbaz would then play some spectacular shots to accelerate the run rate. Sunil Narine, who did not bowl until the 12th over, would claw the Knight Riders back into the game by taking the key wickets of Shakib Al Hasan and Romario Shepherd. A remarkable late blitz from Odean Smith, scoring 23 runs from 7 balls, would then catapult the Warriors to 173/6.
Trinbago Knight Riders had a good start in their chase, Seifert and Munro keeping up with the run rate, but led by Shakib, the Warriors fought back to take wickets, including some spectacular fielding to dismiss Nicholas Pooran. Once captain Kieron Pollard was out stumped, the Knight Riders faced an uphill battle and finished on 136 all out.
The result means that Trinbago Knight Riders have been eliminated from play-off contention.
Sunil Narine bowled the Super Over for the Knight Riders and conceded just six runs. It was left to Romario Shepherd to bowl the Amazon Warriors' Super Over and he conceded just four runs to win the game for his team.
Both teams finished on exactly 138-9 from their 20 overs with neither side consistently dominating with the bat. Knight Riders were favourites with five overs to go but some big hits from Nicholas Pooran and Shepherd tied up the game.
The Amazon Warriors got off to the perfect start with Lendl Simmons bowled by Chandrapaul Hemraj off the second ball of the innings. With two further TKR wickets inside the PowerPlay, they would have been happier of the two teams after six overs, but it could have been even better. Two chances went down which prevented them from having even more success.
A partnership of 39 between Sunil Narine and Tion Webster looked promising before Narine was caught at mid-on attempting to hit over the top of the infield. When Webster was gone seven runs later it was left to Colin Munro and Tim Seifert to rebuild.
Munro top-scored with 32 from 28 balls before he was dismissed by Imran Tahir when he caught a leading edge that was caught in the covers.
A steady flow of TKR wickets prevented them from really getting going but a sprightly 21 from nine balls from Isuru Udana took them to 138-9.
The Amazon Warriors chase also started with early wickets with Ravi Rampaul dismissing Hemraj and Odean Smith from successive balls to leave them 7-2 in the second over.
Shimron Hetmyer and Hafeez looked to rebuild but they were tied down by the TKR spinners. Hafeez was dismissed by Khary Pierre for 16 from 30 balls to leave the Amazon Warriors needing 100 runs from nine overs.
Pooran was dismissed by a stunning one-handed grab by Akeal Hosein before Shepherd took the game deep with the bat. Amazon Warriors squeezed out the tie off the last ball before they claimed a famous win in the Super Over.
Guyana Amazon Warriors 138-9 (Hetmyer 27, Pooran 27; Rampaul 4-29, S Narine 2-9) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 138-9 (Munro 32, Narine 21, Udana 21; Hafeez 3-18, Shepherd 3-24) by Super Over
Patriots captain Rayad Emrit chose to bowl, but while Sheldon Cottrell and Sohail Tanvir started tightly to Rakheem Cornwall, Andre Fletcher was able to pick up boundaries off both. Cornwall retired ill in the third over, and while Mark Deyal started with a Hero Maximum first ball, he should have fallen off his third when Ben Dunk missed a slip catch off Jon-Russ Jaggesar. Jaggesar’s frustration grew when Kieran Powell stepped on the rope while trying to complete a juggling catch.
The Zouks were quick to take advantage, Fletcher taking a liking to Tanvir and Deyal, peppering the leg-side off Jaggesar to power the Zouks to 64/0 off the Powerplay. The onslaught continued as the field went back, with Deyal launching his third Hero Maximum to bring up the 50 stand off just 27 balls.
Ish Sodhi took a good juggling catch at mid-off to dismiss Deyal off Emrit’s first ball. The Patriots captain foxed Najibullah Zadran with an array of slower balls, but the Afghan powered a pair of reverse sweeps off Sodhi and the legspinner was frustrated when Fletcher was dropped again on 38. Another Najibullah four saw the Zouks motor to 91/1 at halfway.
Jaggesar finally got his man when Fletcher picked out deep midwicket. With the Zouks so well set, it was a surprise to see the anchorman Roston Chase come into bat, and he fell to a spitting Jaggesar carrom ball before he could make much of an impression. Tanvir picked up Najibullah and Sammy caught behind in the same over, and at 123/5 in the 15th the Zouks were in danger of wasting a good platform.
Cornwall was well enough to return but hit only one boundary before he was freakishly run out. A Nabi leading edge spun back onto the bowlers’ stumps with Cornwall backing up looking for a run, and Emrit had ample time to complete the run-out.
Nabi showed his class with two huge Hero Maximums off Tanvir, one of which went literally out of the ground. Another flurry off the 20th took the Zouks to an imposing 172-6 despite their mid-innings stutter.
Nabi was back in the action immediately, bowling an excellent first over to Chris Lynn and Evin Lewis. Saad bin Zafar was not so accurate - when he dropped short Lynn pulled, and when he overpitched Lewis drove and paddle-swept - but a stunned Lynn had to depart when Najibullah sprung magnificently to take the catch of the tournament so far.
Lewis toyed with Scott Kuggeleijn, dispatching a Hero Maximum over square leg and paddling the follow-up slower ball very fine for four. But it was the New Zealander who was waiting at long-on when the recalled Joshua Da Silva toe-ended a straight hit off Chase. Kesrick Williams, bowling a rare Powerplay over, mixed up good and bad and the Patriots ended the Powerplay at 52/2.
Chase continued to impress, the ominous Lewis edging a cut to the keeper off a quicker ball. With Obed McCoy also accurate, Sammy was able to ramp up the pressure on Denesh Ramdin and Ben Dunk, and despite Ramdin’s Hero Maximum last ball before the drinks break, the Patriots needed 9.5 an over off the last 10. Dunk succumbed to the pressure, missing a sweep and giving Chase a third wicket of a fantastic spell. Tight overs from Williams and Nabi pushed the required run rate up above 11, and Powell, Ramdin, Tanvir and Emrit all fell trying to slog Kuggeleijn.
The Patriots’ keeper deserves credit for a good lone hand, and Cottrell launched a few lusty blows to narrow the margin of defeat, but other than their mid-innings batting wobble the Zouks were in control throughout, and with their well-stocked spin attack could be a force later in the tournament if the pitches tire as expected. The Patriots meanwhile have work to do if they’re not to be cut adrift.
The Knight Riders, the tournament’s most successful franchise, did not make too many changes to the previous season’s roster. The team retained all of 11 players for this season’s CPL, set to run from August 18 to September 10.
The list includes Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Khary Pierre, Amir Jangoo, Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, and Muhammad Ali Khan. They have also signed 18-year-old West Indies under-19 medium-pacer Jayden Seales, as well as carrying back Australian Fawad Ahmed and New Zealand’s Colin Munro after they had stints away last season.
“I’m very pleased with the balance of the team, certainly the captain and selection committee would have done a wonderful job in having several discussions about the balance of the team based on the types of wickets we will have in Trinidad,” Borde told Trinidad and Tobago’s 7pmnews.
“Certainly, I must commend them for sticking with the core of players that have worked with us over the years and have built a nice tight unit, and also bringing back the likes of Ahmed and Munroe,” he added.
“The balance, experience, and togetherness in this team is going to be something that will take us over the line. We are confident that if we do all the things we need to do, do them consistently and have a bit of luck on the way, we will be competing for the title as well.”
The two-time champions endured a disastrous season in 2019 when they won only two games and finished at the foot of the six-team standings. With the disaster behind them, the Tallawahs decided on a complete overhaul of the squad that included releasing veteran T20 batsman Christopher Gayle while retaining only five players from the previous campaign.
In Monday’s draft, the Tallawahs brought in 2016 T20 World Cup hero Carlos Brathwaite and the big-hitting Glen Phillips to complement Captain Rovman Powell, Andre Russell and Chadwick Walton. They have also added Nkrumah Bonner and Andre McCarthy.
Meanwhile, Fidel Edwards, Veerasammy Permaul, Sandeep Lamichhane and Preston McSween have bolstered the bowling.
“I am hoping that we have a better team. We were rebuilding and that was the whole idea,” Miller told Sportsmax.TV on Tuesday.
“After retaining the five we were looking to rebuild around them.”
Miller explained that they brought in Edwards, the former West Indies pace bowler, to partner young fast bowler Oshane Thomas and McSween to support them both. Right-arm leg-spin bowler Sandeep and Permaul, he said, add a cutting edge to a bowling attack that he expects to be effective on the pitches in Trinidad.
“We expect the pitches to be bowler-friendly,” Miller said, indicating that he believes the pitches in the twin-island republic to wear as the tournament progresses.
Miller is also hopeful that the Tallawahs’ batting will deliver this coming season. He is relying on the experienced Powell, Russell, Phillips and Walton to get the bulk of the runs but in Brathwaite and the returning Andre McCarthy, he is expecting additional stability and firepower.
Brathwaite, he believes, can “do damage” at the back end of the innings but further up the order is where he expects McCarthy to finally deliver on his potential. “I am hoping that McCarthy and Nkrumah Bonner can solidify the number-three slot. I am hoping that a maturing McCarthy can step up to the plate,” he said.
Without going into detail, Miller hinted that they might have missed out on some players they were hoping to sign but those players were drafted by other franchises before the Tallawahs had a shot at them.
According to Tamim, the journey to the CPL, which is set for August 18 in Trinidad and Tobago, is long and would keep him away from his family, making it difficult to respond to emergencies.
Due to the COVID-19 there is travel restriction and route to West Indies is very long. Say I make it to the islands but there is an emergency in my family, I will not be able to return easy. I do not want to take that chance,” said Tamim.
There is also the issue of figuring out when Bangladesh’s domestic cricket will restart. The last game was played in March and it is still unknown when a restart is likely but Tamim, in particular, wants to be available when it does.
“The tournament [Dhaka Premier League] is suspended but as you know, we all are waiting for it to resume which can happen any time,” said Tamim.
Mahmudullah and Tamim have played in the CPL before, the former for the Jamaica Tallawahs and the Bangladesh captain for the St Lucia Zouks.
2023 was the first time that the CPL had returned to Barbados since 2019 and the first time the country had hosted WCPL matches.
There were six men’s matches and three Women’s matches played in Barbados between 30 August and 3 September with the games taking place at the world-famous Kensington Oval.
The total event impact is calculated by world renowned research organisation, YouGov Sport with the final figure being based on a number of key metrics, including organizer and visitor spends on Island media as well as the commercial value generated from the extensive global TV distribution.
One of main contributing elements was the CPL cohort, who were responsible for filling 10,951 hotel room nights in Barbados, made up by CPL’s players, coaches, administrators, TV and media crews, team owner groups, league and franchise event management teams. Other visitor groups associated to the tournament also made a significant contribution to on Island spending during the tournament.
Barbados also benefited from the tournament being broadcast around the world with CPL’s audience reaching 853.5million total viewers in 2023. As always, the tournament worked closely with BTMI to create world class content which promoted Barbados as the unique holiday destination we all know it to be. These exclusive features and vignettes were shown during the CPL matches, further promoting the tourism message.
Pete Russell, Republic Bank CPL’s CEO, said: “It was fantastic to be back in Barbados after four years away and the atmosphere at Kensington Oval was brilliant, highlighting the local and international appetite for CPL cricket. These results are great news for Barbados and we are looking forward to making an even bigger impact in 2024.”
Graham Clarke, Director Caribbean for Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc, said: “It is great to see the iconic Kensington Oval - the cricketing mecca of the Caribbean - hosting CPL matches again, after a brief hiatus during and immediately after the Covid 19 Pandemic. Cricket is much more than a game, it is an economy. For every dollar of revenue earned through the purchase of Bajan goods and services by visitors to our island during the week of CPL, there is a direct and multiplier effect on the people and economy of Barbados.”
